Holy Sh*t, Did That Just Happen?! (One Shots)

The Night The World Stopped Turning

~*~*~*~*The song for this chapter is "Anywhere But Here" by Mayday Parade*~*~*~*~

I don't remember what woke me, maybe it was the crushing stillness in the air, or the impending sense of my whole world about to change, either way, I was awoken with a shot of adrenaline rushing through my veins. I groaned and rolled to look at the clock its mockingly merry pink neon numbers cheerfully flashed that it was 2:46 in the morning. I groaned, knowing that I should be sleeping-exams were tomorrow and I was crap at Standardized Testing with anything less than ten hours of sleep, but a tugging in the back of my mind drew me outside.

I huffed a heavy sigh and obeyed, knowing what it was that my body was demanding and reached for my hide-y hole behind my head board-just another in a long line of oh-so-loving presents the drunken a**hole I used to call father had left me, pulling out a pack of menthol cigarettes along with a Zippo that my friend Jordan had gotten me before going off on summer vacation, leaving me to rot in the fishbowl known as Carver City for a whole three months two summers ago. I knew smoking was a horrible habit-who couldn't with all the negative advertisement and week-long dedication to anti-smoking every year in health class from pre-k to senior year? But I liked it, so I smoked-I was turning eighteen this summer anyway.

I moved toward my bedroom door, careful to stay quiet as I tip-toed to the back door leading to the half-wrap around porch displaying a beautiful country hill side-the sky was a deep purple set a-fire with millions of pin-points of light. It was hard to believe that some people went their entire lives with out seeing such majestic beauty, the very sight of it poured life into my nearly always empty chest-for as long as I could remember there was a coldness buried in my heart, my mind...my soul and no amount of friends or laughter could fill it. I sighed, shaking my head at the thoughts muttering to myself that I was being dramatic, lighting a cigarette and taking a deep calming drag.

As I leaned heavily against the railing I began to pay attention to my surroundings-unlike the average May night, there were no bats tittering in the air above me, or bugs buzzing-the wind wasn't even blowing hard enough to lift my medium short dark red hair off of the back of my neck...it was like the earth was holding it's breath...waiting for some big climactic event that would spin reality like water down a drain.

I held my breath with everything else, slowly getting the creeping feeling that I was being watched, trying to look smooth about it I glanced around the thick brush ringing the yard, looking for the predator threatening enough to make even the bugs hide from it. I took another deep drag to try and stop my hands from shaking so badly as I focused on the deep black shadows of my sanctuary-a little open field ringed with trees all around it that I planted myself, in the center of the clearing there was a ancient gnarled willow tree, bowed with rot and age, mom had tried to convince me to cut it down at least a zillion times but I refused, I loved that tree, it spoke deeply to me....unfortunately it was also the best place a creeper could dream of to hide, which means I just had to sneak over there to see! Sometimes I wonder if I'm not as bubbly brained as my mum-she would invite a man in a ski-mask covered in blood into the house on a stormy night. "Oh my!" I mocked my mother in my head, lighting another smoke, "You must be freezing out there! Here, the powers out but I still have some nice warm tea if you want a cup!" I imagine my mother giving a cup of hot tea to the killer, "Oh, no, what a nasty fall/nose bleed you must have had to be covered in so much blood! How unlucky for you with your night-time wood cutting job! I can get the blood right out of these! Why don't you slip out of those and in to something of my husbands, oh no he won't mind, he's away on a business trip til Friday it's just me and my seventeen year old daughter here!"

I snorted in laughter at the thought, sobering instantly when I heard something snap in the wooded area in front of me. I looked hard to see a pair of luminescent blue eyes for a flash of a second before they disappeared deeper in to the grove. "Don't do it, Eve-y, don't do it!" I muttered under my breath, but even as I told myself not to, my mind screaming at me to turn the freak around and high tail it back to the porch, my body dragged me forward in to the trees where my mother wouldn't be able to see me-or anyone else for that matter!

At first I didn't think anyone was here, that it was just me and my big tree, then I heard the leaves rustle in the windless night. I looked up and there they were, the beautiful blue eyes that I knew would forever haunt my dreams...I peered closer, barely able to make out the form of a boy crouched about half way up the trees crooked trunk. "Who are you?" I meant to sound hard and threatening, but my words came out as a soft whisper-I had dropped my smoke the moment I had laid eyes on him and now crunched it out on the dry grass to avoid lighting my little place of comfort ablaze.

"I'm sorry." he whispered in return, bowing his head, his longish hair falling and cutting off my view of his stunning, hypnotic eyes. There was so much hurt in those two words, so much emotion that it bubbled in my head-festering like a wound gone untreated.

"Don't be..." I found myself saying as I crept closer to the tree, afraid I would spook him and he would run, I found that I didn't want him running away...anyone with that much pain packed in everything they said desperately needed someone in their lives to show them that the world wasn't completely dark and mistrusting. "Why don't you come with me? Hm?" I inched closer until I was beneath where he perched, getting a better view of his dark, shadowy outline.

"I can't..." his deep, honey-smooth voice made me shiver, like he had sapped the warmth from the night, like he had only ever known the deepest despair and darkest monsters all his life.

"Please," I found myself begging, forgetting that I lived with my mom and step-dad, forgetting that it wasn't really my decision, forgetting that my father wouldn't allow him to stay, I found myself wanting to show him the love that I had known and in that awe-struck moment, the chill that always lived in my soul was gone-completely filled in his presence. "Come with me." I begged, softly, reaching up on my tip-toes and grabbing his warm wrist. I was shocked, for some reason I expected it to be cold.

"It's dangerous." He protested, even as he slid further down the tree, closer to me.

"I'm a tough girl."

"It's me that's dangerous."

"You can't be that bad."

"I am."

"I don't care." His eyes landed on mine again as he finally found himself directly in front of me, stealing every breath from my body. "I don't care..." I whispered. He stood there, heat radiating off of him as we just stared at each other.

"You shouldn't smoke...it'll put you in an early grave."

I chuckled nervously, wondering why we were whispering, it wasn't like anyone was around to hear us. "Gotta die of something, right?" I asked.

"I'd prefer you not die at all."

"Unfortunately everyone dies eventually." I said, shrugging, the twitch of a move bringing me alarmingly closer, to the point we were very nearly touching-I swear I had never experienced a moment as intense as this in my entire life, and if I never saw him again, I don't think I ever would again. "What's your name?" I murmured.

"Owen...what's yours?" I narrowed my eyes, having the creeping feeling that he knew exactly what my name was...

"Eve! Are you out there?!" my mom screeched, I swung my head around to face the house, wracking my brain for an excuse for being out in the yard in a sheer night gown holding a pack of cigarettes with a boy to my mom without dying only to find that at some point the sun had risen. "You're going to be late to school, get your butt in the house!" she called.

"'Kay, mom, coming!" I called, turning back to Owen only to find that he had disappeared. Had it just been a dream? Was he never there in the first place? I turned sighing, feeling that familiar chilling ache fill my chest as I turned to walk back top the house only to be slapped in the face by a warm leather jacket. I paused, pulling it off the branch it hung from on a sturdy plum tree-it was worn and warm and soft as silk and...his, it was his. I slid it on, raising the collar breathing deeply, catching the sent of roses, mint, leather, cherry-wood smoke and something spicy-it was the best smelling thing I had ever had the pleasure of sniffing in my entire life! I smiled a secret smile and slid my hands in the pockets, a piece of paper brushing against my finger tips.

I'll see you tonight, sweet Eve, until then, may this remind you that I'm real...Owen.

Whoa... "Eve!"

"Gawd, mom, I'm coming!" I ran from my sanctuary, feeling the comforting feel of eyes following my every move.

~*~*~*~*~

Is this as intense as I feel it is?